The First Showboat

(album: Walker's Collectibles - 1974)

Yeah, a mile around the bend down the Ohio
Coming up the river for the Sunday show
There's a tuba and a banjo and a steam calliope
Sitting on the deck of the big paddle wheel

What a thrill it must have been play in Dixie for the folks
Up and down the river on the first showboat
What a thrill it must have been play in Dixie for the folks
Up and down the river on the first showboat

Yeah, well poppa took the kids, momma took the lunch
The gents took the belles and the whiskey took the drunks
But the biggest thrill of all you know it had to be
Way up front playing steam calliope

What a thrill it must have been play in Dixie for the folks
Up and down the river on the first showboat
What a thrill it must have been playing Dixie for the folks
Up and down the river on the first showboat

Yeah, there's magic in the air riddle in the rhymes
Slow and easy in the summertime
Yeah, an who'd a ever thought it could come to be
That Jim Crows flyin where the eagle ought to be